District 6 third-grade reading scores climb

Changing the trajectory. Beating the odds. Not in spite of what we do, but because of what we do.

The clichés used by Greeley-Evans School District 6 concerning its climb in achievement over the years go on and on.

But when the Colorado Department of Education released preliminary third-grade reading scores on Tuesday, the district appears to be doing exactly what it says it is.

"When you get all the right principals and all the right teachers in place, it comes together," said Ranelle Lang, superintendent of the district.

We have teachers who care about these kids. It is a lot more work to teach these kids, and we have teachers who want to be there.

— Ranelle Lang, District 6 superintendant

That is exactly what Lang said is happening at the district's 16 elementary and K-8 schools.

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The preliminary results, which are not official until August, show gains in the number of at-risk students scoring proficient or advanced on the third-grade reading portion of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program tests.

Six schools — Bella Romero, Winograd K-8, Meeker, Jackson, Maplewood and Billie Martinez — all grew by 11 percentage points or more. Four of those schools — Jackson (89 percent), Romero (93), Maplewood (97) and Martinez (99) — are among the seven schools with the highest percentage of students on free and reduced lunch. And three of those four also have the highest number of English language learners — Romero (57 percent), Maplewood (61) and Martinez (66).

"These are kids who come to our district without an early education," Lang said. "We are changing the trajectory with the programs and curriculum put in place. We have teachers who care about these kids. It is a lot more work to teach these kids, and we have teachers who want to be there."

Lang said the proof is in the growth among the district's traditional schools compared to its charter schools. Lang has long said the charter schools — with a much different demographic makeup — should have huge successes on the TCAPs because their students are not coming to school hungry, almost all can speak English and most attended preschool, which studies show increase a child's success rate in school.

None of the charter schools grew the overall number of students scoring proficient and advanced, but officials at one charter school said there is more to look at than just one year of numbers when comparing apples to oranges.

University Schools dropped 1 percentage point from 70 percent in 2012 to 69 percent this year; Frontier Academy scored 87 percent both years; West Ridge Academy Charter dropped 7 percentage points from 79 percent to 72 percent; and Union Colony Elementary had 58 percent of its students score proficient or advanced in its first year of operation.

Paul Kirkpatrick, principal for the K-8 portion of University Schools, said when looked at over the course of several years, the data shows a see-saw effect of a few percentage points.

"Over the last five or six years, it would be one thing if you were going from 90 to 40 to 80 to 20," he said. "If it changed that drastically, I would be concerned. But over the last five or six years our scores have only wiggled a little bit."

Kirkpatrick said the school's goal is to get to the 80 percent or above mark, and they are working on ways to do that, but comparing a group of kids this year to a different group of kids from last year isn't the way to do it, he said.

The school is making changes next year to better isolate the variables, he said.

For the first time in its history, University will have an elementary school principal who can focus on just K-5. Currently, Kirkpatrick acts as the K-8 principal, assistant principal and athletic director. The school will also stop having combination classrooms for grades 1-2 and 3-4.

"For years we valued the opportunity to do the multigrade," he said. "But with the opportunity to change some other things, we thought we would give that a look out of fairness to a teacher not to have to try and teach two different years of standards to two different groups of kids."

Despite not having previous years to compare third grade results to for growth, the scores are necessary and come out earlier than other test results because studies show that only one in seven students who are not at grade level in reading by the third grade will ever be at grade level.

"If they are partially proficient and English language learners, I'm OK with that because I know they'll get there," Lang said. "But (they) still weigh on my mind because we could change their trajectory faster if we had the resources."

Lang said it takes about $700 per student for summer programs to get students caught up.

Still, she said the district is doing better with less resources and more at-risk students, and she credits the work the schools are doing in the younger grades to get to this point.

"It takes time to put these things in place," she said. "We've gotten needier and needier but our scores keep going up. It takes 12 years to change a system because you have to start with your (kindergartners)."

Stacie Datteri, executive director of learning services, said it's time for the community to recognize the hard work the children of the district put in.

"This community has to fall in love with these kids," Datteri said. "They have to stop blaming our kids. They come to us, and I don't really care where they come from. We will continue to educate them. They are doing wonderful things in our classrooms, and the teachers are making that happen."

Lang agreed, adding she is proud of the work the teachers have done and is happy she can show the community that its trust is not misplaced.

"We are just going to keep getting better and better," Lang said. "If parents are sending their children to a charter school or out of district because they think they are going to get a better education or a more challenging one, they are absolutely wrong."